Ford O'Connell's Plan for GOP 2016 Victory: Do What Obama Did

Political strategist Ford O'Connell is offering a life-line to the Republican Party in the form of new book of advice that he believes will help the GOP take back the White House in 2016.

In his book, "Hail Mary: A 10-Step Playbook for Republican Recovery," the Republican consultant who worked for Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, offers some blunt criticism of a party he says in a desperate position, kind of like a football team facing "fourth and long," he said in an interview with Politico.

"Ronald Reagan is Dead. Accept It," "Hug the Gays (No, Really)," and "Kill Immigration Reform, Kill the GOP" are just a few examples of chapter titles and the type of advice that can be found in his book.

"We've lost, what, five of the last six presidential elections in popular vote?" O'Connell told Politico. "And if Hillary Clinton is indeed the nominee in 2016 as many of us think she's going to be, she's going to have about 247 electoral votes coming out of the shoot and the Republican nominee, if they want to win, 10 states are going to be in play.

"That means they have to win Colorado, Virginia and Ohio and, if they don't, she's going to walk right back in the front door," he added.

It wouldn't hurt Republicans to take a page from President Barack Obama's playbook, O'Connell also advised his party, noting that Obama learned how to connect to the American people outside of the political sphere.

"What the Republican Party has to do is something that Barack Obama actually did in September 2012 when he ditched the White House press corps and basically went on a bunch of variety shows, etc., and basically talked about everything but politics," the Republican strategist told Politico. "He projected an image of a hard-working guy and that really resonated with a lot of people."

"The Republican Party needs to find five or 10 of its best communicators — if it has that many — and basically go on a lot of what I would call nontraditional political media shows and just go out there and be likable and talk about anything but politics," he added.

O'Connell told Newsmax the same thing back in December, saying this approach is necessary "because essentially a lot of people don't follow politics."

He added at the time that his two favorite picks for a presidential run in 2016 were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, saying that he "prefers the governors" because of their executive experience actually running a government.